What was the first rocket you ever launched?

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
This one and I was exactly the target market for it:
https://estesrockets.com/product/001225-alpha/I think I only bought 3 packs of motors for it and a few years later I applied what I learned about model rocketry by strapping on a parachute myself.

(Edit: To be clear, I jumped out of an airplane as soon as it was legal for me to do so, i.e. at the earliest age they allow someone in a regular civilian parachute jumping class.).
 
Last edited:
That copy in the link is amusing to me. "...for over 36 years" it says. Yeah....it's 55 years now. :) (The Alpha first appeared in the December 1965 Model Rocket News, and I think it was the first model to have the trip-fold shock cord mount and a "quick change" engine hook.)
 
Estes WAC Corporal, maybe 1965-1967 (not sure how old I was). Sooo very careful building it.. but had the nosecone on too tight. Straight up, straight down! My dad and I were looking at it coming right back down at us and weren't sure which way to run! It lawn darted about 15 ft from the little red Estes battery-box launch pad. Fortunately the field was soft enough that it lived to fly another day, albeit with the body tube 1/4" shorter!


My buddies kid got into rockets thanks to me. And he wanted to build a mean machine sooooooo bad. Well we sent it up on the minimum engine and talk about catastrophic landing. I didnt know the kid put glue inside the body tube where the nose cone goes. Well imagine 6 foot of rocket falling at terminal velocity right at you and hit the ground nose cone first and completely splitting along the spiral seam and cracking in 2. We all laughed and it was amazing. Now his kid is itching to build something bigger.
 
This one and I was exactly the target market for it:
https://estesrockets.com/product/001225-alpha/I think I only bought 3 packs of motors for it and a few years later I applied what I learned about model rocketry by strapping on a parachute myself.

(Edit: To be clear, I jumped out of an airplane as soon as it was legal for me to do so, i.e. at the earliest age they allow someone in a regular civilian parachute jumping class.).
My first was a Centuri Payloader way back in 1970.Flew perfectly that time and just about every time after that.Had it for something like 15 years till it finally fell apart from being flown so much.Most reliable rocket I ever owned.
 
First rocket was a fifty cent Astron Streak my brother got me for my birthday around 1967. We launched it in the backyard and never saw it again. A few years later on a vacation out west, my family stopped at Estes in Penrose and they took us on a tour. At the end, Estes' daughter launched a Big Bertha for us just outside the building. I bought an Orbital Transport kit in their store. Great memories. I'm an old man now.
 
Have already mentioned my first and second rockets flown in this thread. Trying to recall what the third one was. After reviewing the Centuri catalog for 1969, I am fairly certain it was a Centuri Micron. After that, Centuri Black Widow, Nike Smoke, Firefly and an Aerobee 500, in some order that I do not remember.
 
Last edited:
An absolutely stupid 7.5in diameter 6ft high scratch build on an aerotech L1000 our club built for NASA Student Launch. Looking back I hate that design haha

Although personally my first solo was my Zephyr.
 
Estes Beta as a single stage on an A10-3T on an asphalt parking lot at the local college in July of 1977. Pretty much all I thought about for the rest of the summer. 25 years later I finally flew a Beta as the two stager it was intended to be. Straight up, straight down. That day I learned I learned to scrape the nozzle of the sustainer stage to get rid of anything that might have been left from the production process. Also learned to take pics of the finished build BEFORE the first flight, as can be seen in the photo.View attachment 464157

Fairly certain my first kit was an Estes Challenger 2. It provided the launch pad for a few others. The Beta was one of the ones I had. I tried flying it on a couple of the higher powered motors and it disappeared. The Challenger 2 on a D12 was more than a neighborhood launch area could deal with.

I had a Bluebird Zero that I really liked and one that looked like an anti-tank round (and pretty much broke fins off every.single.flight.).
 
For me, same as OC-PATRICK post CENTURY rocket Screaming Eagle. My dad Rest In Peace launched it with me, my first launch in 1975. WOW memories can be strong.
 
Nice looking rocket. I got back into the hobby in the 90s and due to life changes, back out again. Back into it in 2015 and I have enough to supply a wholesaler. I haven’t pushed a launch button since 1975. I’m solo in this hobby but looking forward to launch again. One of my favorite rockets in the 70s was the Centuri SS Scorpion. Never launched it but what a cool looking rocket
 
I don’t know about anyone else in here but I’m like a kid at a candy store. I can’t just get one so I buy what I can afford. Money has been nonexistent for a while now so I will work on what I got. My wife walks in the room and says, why do you have double and triples? Why don’t you get rid most of theses? I mumble why don’t I get rid of y—, never mind. Motors and rockets were dirt cheep in the 70s.
 
The first one would have been made from the blue tube the 3 motors at the Sport Shop came in. Second one was some kind of small paper can found in the kitchen launched off a music wire.

The first "Real" rocket kit was the Estes Astron Scout. Then it was like I was buying a Kit at that Sport Shop once a week.

Funny Thing, Vern told me he never sold rockets to gun stores, and when talking to him at NSL 2018 I told him our Sport Shop that was the place starting to sell rockets in my town was on the upper level a Bow and Firearms shop, and lower level Plastic Models, Free Flight Airplanes, rail road tracks and cars, Slot Cars , and then Model Rockets when they got popular.

Edit: my Dad did buy me the COX rocket science kit before , but never did that model fly. We tried a few times, but it turned out my Dad would not buy the Photo Flash batteries the launcher needed to the VERY $$$ high price of them so the ignitors of the cox motor never did lite.

My first motor to lite was with cannon fuse from the sport shop in a blue tube with paper cone.
 
Last edited:
The first one would have been made from the blue tube the 3 motors at the Sport Shop came in. Second one was some kind of small paper can found in the kitchen launched off a music wire.

The first "Real" rocket kit was the Estes Astron Scout. Then it was like I was buying a Kit at that Sport Shop once a week.

Funny Thing, Vern told me he never sold rockets to gun stores, and when talking to him at NSL 2018 I told him our Sport Shop that was the place starting to sell rockets in my town was on the upper level a Bow and Firearms shop, and lower level Plastic Models, Free Flight Airplanes, rail road tracks and cars, Slot Cars , and then Model Rockets when they got popular.

Replying to my own post, forgive me. Years later we moved to the south end burbs of the town from the west end.

Around 17-18 I went back to that Sport Shop and saw they still had all the old FSI motors and other rocket stuff. I talked to the guy at the counter about it and he said all the rocket sales just fell off the cliff in some years past. [yea the guy drumming up rockets with the other kids moved]

I offered a low ball offer on all the Left over FSI motors and rockets ... I still have a few of the motors...
 
My first was a Estes Scout ordered from Estes mail order catalog in the mid 60's. I remember being so into Estes I new the catalog by heart .
I could tell you what was on every page, name a rocket I could tell you what page it was on. Yea that was when I had a memory.
 
Back
Top